This brief examines newly released 2026 enrollment data for forage insurance in the Federal Crop Insurance Program, with a focus on the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) program. PRF insures perennial forage used for grazing or haying through a rainfall index that serves as a proxy for forage productivity and drought risk, since grazed forage cannot be directly measured like harvested crops. As of March 19, 2026, PRF enrollment reached 322.54 million acres, up 8.59 million acres from 2025, confirming continued national growth. However, expansion remains slower than the rapid gains observed between 2016 and 2022, suggesting possible saturation in some western states where participation is already high. National penetration increased from 70.9 percent to 72.84 percent, though growth remained uneven across states. The findings indicate that future PRF expansion will depend increasingly on adoption in underinsured regions and on how program rules, incentives, and compliance requirements shape participation.
Tsiboe et al. (Thu,) studied this question.